How to Treat Acid Reflux Cough
Acid Reflux (also known as Heartburn) is something I have recently become intimately aware of. This year, for the first time, I experienced a really bad case of acid reflux.
It was terrible! Imagine not being able to talk because every time you try to speak you start coughing non-stop. Yes, non-stop! So of course, my biggest question was, “How did this happen?”
I’ll give you the cliff notes version below, but check out an awesome, detailed video from my naturopathic doctor, Dr. Peter Glidden. In the video, he talks about acid reflux/heartburn, and GERD.
How Does Acid Reflux Happen?
So, let’s get to the point! How does acid reflux happen?
You can develop acid reflux when your stomach acid is lowered. Your stomach acid needs to be strong ( think battery acid strong), in order for you to digest food properly. If your stomach acid is low, you are not able to digest your food. As a result, the acid comes back up into your esophagus, irritating your throat lining, and causing you to cough.
When Stomach Acid is Low
Well, being the inquisitive person that I am, my next question was, “how did I develop low stomach acid?”
Well, 2 major factors are involved with low stomach acid:
How much salt per day?
Most Americans consume more salt than they should on a daily basis. The average is 3,400 mg of sodium per day. I think that’s because we are only consuming salt and not iodine. Iodine is considered a “necessary nutrient”, not salt.
Iodine is also used in the creation of strong stomach acid. Without iodine, it will be hard for your body to produce strong enough stomach acid to digest your food.
It’s important to get iodine in your diet, and the best way to do that is to purchase salt that contains iodine. Now here’s the challenge, go to your local grocery store and try finding salt with iodine in it. I promise you it will be more of a challenge than you think.
I once went to Mother’s Grocery store, which is a local, health food grocery store here in southern California. I figured, if I wanted to find salt with iodine, this would be the place. I went to the condiment section and saw a whole shelf full of various types of salt. I started one by one, reading the labels to find the best salt with iodine.
After reading several labels of various salt manufacturers, I had noticeably been in the aisle for some time, because I couldn’t find any salt with iodine. Finally, a clerk asked me if I needed any help. I replied, “Yes!”.
I explained that I was looking for salt with iodine but wasn’t able to find it. The clerk said, “ Don’t they all have iodine”. I explained that the only way to know for sure is to read the labels. As the clerk started reading the labels, she came across the same challenge I was experiencing. None of the salt contained iodine.
The clerk finally got frustrated and said, “ If it doesn’t have iodine, then what is it?”. I replied, “Exactly!”. I truly didn’t have an answer for her, because I don’t know either.
My point in sharing this story is that you can be consuming salt, but it may be low-quality since it doesn’t contain iodine. Therefore, you could be over-consuming salt, and still, be deficient in iodine.
In addition to low-quality salt, due to more recent “low sodium” diets, some of us have put forth an effort to consume significantly less salt. This is not a bad thing, but there is a balance.
According to Dietary Guidelines for Americans, they recommend we consume less than 2,300 mg per day, which is about 1 teaspoon of table salt! Remember, when you don’t get enough salt (with iodine), your body is not able to produce enough stomach acid to digest your food.
What Salt Has Iodine?
Amazon’s Top Picks
All of Amazon’s top salt picks have no iodine in them. Now what? I asked my naturopathic doctor, for help because it’s incredibly difficult to find salt with iodine in it. He recommended that I purchase pink Himalayan sea salt because it will have enough iodine in it, even if it’s not stated on the package.
Calcium Deficiency Treatment
Calcium deficiency is the other cause of acid reflux. According to Dr. Peter Glidden, calcium is important because calcium also increases the acid strength in your stomach. The average adult needs 1,000 mg of calcium per day. The amount of calcium increases to 1,200 mg per day for women aged 50+ and men aged 71+.
Not sure how to increase your calcium intake. I would suggest purchasing a calcium supplement, but not just any calcium supplement, because the challenge with calcium is absorption. Calcium can be very difficult to absorb, so you need a supplement that has co-factors in it to increase its absorption.
I would suggest Youngevity’s Beyond Osteo Fx, as it supplies you with more than the daily recommended intake of calcium, along with nutrients that enhance calcium absorption by the body.
Calcium Supplement
